About Me

Saturday, 16 April 2016

You'll Never Sing Alone

A modern
mystery that has exercised the minds of men is the question of how and when
Liverpool FC supporters took to chanting "You'll Never Walk Alone" as
part of their devotions. A Guardian
article of 2003, little researched, said "Gerry and the Pacemakers"
were a key factor but claimed that before then people did not sing at football
matches.

The song is
heard in the film "Carousel", which came out in 1956, based on the
stage show of 1945, which had enjoyed long runs. It was filled with popular tunes and was very
sentimental. One reason the film gained a large audience is that it was one of
the early big screen movies with state of the art sound track.

At that time community
singing of one sort or another was still part of the way of life although
beginning to lose out to the mechanical music of the media. We were taught to sing in schools and sing
songs of one sort or another were part of very many social things in fact you
could not escape them.

A key date is
that in 1962 the BBC series "Z Cars" began, a major police social
realism programme designed for a mass audience.
This entailed the BBC having a full production facility in
Liverpool. Added to this the BBC went
"Scouse" for working class items.
The Beatles owed their break to a BBC special featuring them.

At the time
the BBC had to recover viewing figures to keep the license fee, ITV commanding
the market with quiz shows etc. So on
the BBC we had Cilla Black and other Liverpool pop groups, such as Gerry and
the Pacemakers who put out their single, "You'll Never Walk Alone" late
in 1963 which went to Number One in the Charts and stayed in them for some time.

It was in 1963
when the Everton club at Goodison Park, the other side of Stanley Park in
Liverpool, began to use "Johnny Todd", the theme tune of the BBC
"Z Cars" programme as an anthem.
They had attempted others which were not welcomed. A jaunty tune easy to remember, although
associated with Merseyside it the disadvantage
of original lyrics that were not entirely apt.
It has remained though despite the programme being long since gone.

At the time
the unkind might say that it was only right for the Evertonians to represented
by a tune that related to television GBH, assault and battery, burglary, car
theft etc. among the lowest orders but a Liverpool anthem had to be more
respectable and inspirational. At least
that is my excuse.

It was in
January 1964 that the BBC "Top Of The Pops" began, quickly followed
in October 1964 by ITV's "Ready Steady Go". By 1964 Beatle's mania was in full swing. On July 4 at the premiere of "A Hard Days
Night", now hard to watch, graced by Princess Margaret, 10,000 fans gave
the London Metropolitan Police a hard time.
On July 10, the Liverpool Police had the worst of it when 150,000 fans
welcomed The Beatles back to Liverpool.
There were 300 injuries.

In the football,
Liverpool were promoted to Division One in 1961-62, after seven long years in
Division Two; narrowly missing promotion in the previous four seasons and made
their mark in Division One in 1962-1963 finishing 8th with local rivals Everton
as Champions. In 1963-64 Liverpool were
Champions and Everton 3rd.

On 22nd August
1964 the first BBC "Match of the Day" came on screen with Liverpool
at home to Arsenal and the BBC wanted coverage of the crowd as part of this
coup and to present the games as part of their populist programming.

Again,
community singing was a norm and had been for decades. It was common for crowds to sing. Football clubs very often had bands playing
before the game and at half time. It was
usual for a band master to conduct the crowd for a couple of things.

In live
theatre variety shows and pantomimes there was usually an item where the
audience sang with the words on boards held up.
Coach trips often meant singing, on holidays sing songs were usual,
Christmas parties, I could go on and on.

I went to both
soccer and rugby matches. The Welsh in
particular insisted on singing. When
many games had lots of fans just out of the pubs there was often desultory
singing of this or that. Leicester City
played the Post Horn Gallop over the tannoy when the team ran out. If a game was boring fans might sing to make
the point.

I recall in
the late 1950's being at Wembley Rugby League finals when we were given song
sheets for the pre-match sing song. For
FA Cup finals there was community singing before the game, finishing with
"Abide With Me". Some of this
spilled over into routine games but it was random. Newcastle United fans sang "Blaydon
Races" but nobody else did.

But when TV arrived
in 1964 of league fixtures this meant the screening had to be livened up and
varied one way or another. Liverpool were in the top flight again rejoining
local rivals, Everton. The Kop made very good TV; Scouse bands were top of the
hit parade, recently the big one being "You'll Never Walk Alone", so
the Liverpool anthem was born.

Might there
have been a "fixer"? Brian
Epstein was manager of both The Beatles and Gerry And The Pacemakers, had an
inside track into the BBC and was clever
and creative in managing opportunities for his clients.

The Liverpool
area had a number of marginal constituencies, there was a General Election in
October 1964. Although not called until
15 September, the talk was in the air and seemed likely after Churchill had left
the House of Commons in July leaving Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home as his
political heir.

Given that the
Conservative P.M. Alec Douglas-Home was facing the economic problems of the
period, the financial uncertainties, the Sterling Area under stress and a bad coming
winter with the Trade Unions, notably the dock workers, and the American's had
launched into Vietnam it made sense for him to try his luck a year early and it
was a very near miss.

I believe that
Harold Wilson, the Labour Leader and a local M.P.; who made a great show of
liking The Beatles, was in the Director's box at Anfield for that first 22nd
August TV game. Meanwhile, on the
Glorious Twelfth of August, the opening of the grouse shooting season, Alec
would have been seen on the moors.

It would have made
a real contrast in terms of political propaganda. I wonder if Brian Epstein might have prompted
the local Gerry fan's and pop music lovers to enjoy a special sing on The Kop
to liven up the game coverage? One of
those accidents of history.

The picture
above is of the Liverpool 1946-47 team who I saw play a few times when staying
there, when popular music was more Vera Lynn or Gracie Fields; better than the
US options of "Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette" or the "Too Fat
Polka". "Oklahoma" or
"Calamity Jane" do not quite fit.

But it could have been different as this report on their visit to the USA in 1946 says. It was felt that the food they ate in
contrast to the limited rations at home set them up for the season and had a
crucial effect on their strength and stamina.

There is a
different look to the team than modern ones.
As for what to sing then there were other options from the further past,
but that is for another post on grounds of length.